Detentions
by sbyamibakura
Summary: Snarry, Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger. Set 7th year (obviously a bit AU. Possible spoilers for the books.) If staring determinedly at a book would give you all the secrets of the universe, then Hermione Granger would certainly have been the smartest person alive in that moment.


Detentions

By: PhoenixJustice

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros and others who are not me.  
I only own this story and make no profit from this.

Warning:

Pairing: Snarry, Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger.

Setting: 7th year (obviously a bit AU. Possible spoilers for the books.)

Summary: If staring determinedly at a book would give you all the secrets of the universe, then Hermione Granger would certainly have been the smartest person alive in that moment.

A/N: A very happy (belated) birthday to Annie/Miss KM! Love you! :3

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If staring determinedly at a book would give you all the secrets of the universe, then Hermione Granger would certainly have been the smartest person alive in that moment. Something was...off, but she couldn't place exactly what (and she loathed when she didn't know something.)

"What's with the face, 'Mione?" Ron asks, taking a seat across from her, already digging enthusiastically into his lunch.

She looks at the empty space where Harry should have been sitting, yet he was gone. Again. It had been this way for awhile now, but it had ramped up more often as of late, to where he was even starting to miss meals.

"It's just, with those detentions-" She starts.

Ron rolls his eyes. "Oh come on," He says, mumbling the words a bit around the bite of food he had taken. He swallows the food before he continues. "Not that again. It's-look, we always knew Snape has had it out for Harry. It's how it's always been. Being on our side hasn't exactly softened the man up."

Snape was indeed on their side (he had been instrumental in taking down Lord Voldemort the year prior, at the end of the school year, working together with Harry. His information alone had been invaluable and she was certain they wouldn't have been able to take out Voldemort without him) but that didn't mean whatsoever that he had suddenly become a nice person. He was still quite sharp with his words and his obvious dislike of Harry had only seemed to magnify last year, for whatever reason.

And being the kind of person she was, she wanted to know _why_.

"Yes, but it's never been this...intense." She insists.

Ron shrugs. "Harry seems to be taking in just fine. Kinda sucks he has to miss out on lunch sometimes, but what can _we_ do?"

She ponders that just as Harry enters the Great Hall.

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"Are you alright, Harry?" She asks him one day, a week or two later, when she manages to be able to speak to him for more than five minutes before it seemed like he had somehow gotten yet another detention for one reason or another.

He blinks down at her. He would never be as tall as some, like Ron, but he had grown further over the summer (having been able to stay with Sirius the past couple of years had done him obvious good) and had become noticably taller than her.

"'M fine." He says, looking at her nonplussed. "Do I look sick or something?"

She shakes her head. "No, no. It's just-you must certainly have the record of most detentions for any student. Even including Fred and George's run in school."

He stills and for a moment the look in his eyes change, like he wants to tell her something, then they go back to the genial look they had been and he gives her an easy smile. It doesn't look fake, nor does she _think_ it's fake and yet...something about it doesn't ring _quite_ true, for some reason.

"No, I'm good." He says, smile soft as he looks at her. "But thanks. Though if you want to help me with my _Charms_ homework later-"

It gets her to laugh, like it looked like he wanted it to. "No." She says firmly, though she can't help but smile. "It's not _my_ fault you and Ron left it until the last minute."

"Wow, so no help for your boyfriend either?" Ron says with an exaggerated pout, coming up to stand beside her. "I feel so...sad."

She rolls her eyes at his over-the-top tone. " _Sure_ you do, Ronald Weasley."

"And with that," Harry says. "I gotta go."

Her brow raises. "But it's starting to get late. Surely Snape wouldn't-" But he would. Hadn't it become clear over the past few months that the older man would give detentions to Harry whenever he damn well pleased?

"It's okay. I'm sure it'll ease up soon enough."

She gives him a skeptical look and he laughs.

"Well...one can live in hope, anyhow."

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Next Potions lesson she is running behind schedule for once; her bag had ripped just as she leaves the classroom and she's still picking up her books, ready to spell the bag closed, just as she catches faint hints of conversation from the classroom.

"-not up for discussion."

"-but you-S-"

"Hermione?" She jerks her head up to see Ron looking at her with furrowed brows. She finishes putting her books back in her bag, giving it a quick bespelling to keep it from ripping again (at least right away) and straightens up, giving him a smile. "Come on, or we'll miss Charms."

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He pauses in mid sentence, looking at the door for a moment. "Did you hear that?"

A sigh. "Potter, do not use an excuse to-"

He rolls his eyes. "Oh please," He scoffs. "Like I ever back down from anything. You know better than that."

A pause, then: "Surely you don't expect me to argue that point with you?"

He snorts.

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All of them, even her (maybe even _especially_ her), were feeling the pressure of the upcoming N.E. . It was the last-and first, really-stepping stone to lead them all to their futures. She had been studying harder than she had ever studied in her life (and that was saying something, considering her Third Year.) Even Ron had sat down to study with an intensity that was surprising (he had it in mind, as did Harry, to become an Auror and you needed a lot of N.E. for that.)

Speaking of Harry...he too, to her everlasting surprise, was studying just as much as all of them. Considering his lack of time this whole year (and really, the year before as well-though most of that, at that time, was due to Lord Voldemort), the fact that he was doing as well in his studies was almost shocking. Even more shocking, was how well he seemed at certain subjects.

While Severus Snape might give him detentions at every turn, Harry still seemed better at Potions than almost anyone in the class, herself included. Considering how he had once been at them, that was saying very much.

She stops, surprised, when she looks up and sees the expression Harry has on his face as he looks at her, like he wants to tell her something.

"Harry?" She asks, puzzled.

He shakes his head, smiling. "Don't worry about it."

"But-"

His smile remains soft. "Don't worry about it _right now_ , I should say. Got something I want to tell you two at the end of the term."

She is _highly_ curious now, but at his look she leaves it at that.

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The term ends and she has N.E. in every subject she goes after. Despite Ron and Harry's assurance that she'd pass them with flying colors, she still had that doubt in the back of her mind and could only feel relief when Professor McGonagall passes her her results (a rare smile on the Transfiguration teachers face as she does so.)

Ron doesn't get all of his N.E. needed to become an Auror, which is a crushing blow to him, but ("It's alright." He says, obviously trying to be strong. "I'll just work in Fred and George's Joke Shop; they said a position would always be there for me, if I wanted it.)

Harry gets all of the N.E. needed to become an Auror. Instead of the happiness she expects from him at seeing his results, he instead looks thoughtful.

"It's-it's not what you wanted?" She asks timidly.

He looks up at her and it strikes her then just how much he has matured, in body and mind both. Same with Ron. Same with her too, really. They had all been through so much and it had matured them in many ways that many of their peers could not understand. Harry now looked both quite like his father-even more so than he ever had-and yet not. She can see many of his mother's quality's in him and not just her eyes.

"I thought it was," He tells her. "Earlier."

She can hear a _but_ in there. "But?"

"But, dunno if that's what I want to do. Kinda don't want to do the long distance bit."

Ron looks at him, confused, but her eyes widen.

"So you-" She stops as Harry turns to look at her. Something in his look makes a _click_ go off in her mind. "Harry...is that someone here?"

Now Ron looks at _her_ like she's grown a second head. "Uh...what?"

Harry smiles. A smile both mysterious and yet somehow grounded in the Harry she had known these past seven years.

"Yes." He says softly. He stands suddenly, surprising them both. He wipes his hands on his robes and she sees a flash of something on his hand but can't make it out before his hand is in his pocket. "Will you two come with me?"

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They're the only ones left at Hogwarts at this point who were not teachers, ghosts, or poltergeists. She wonders how they're allowed to still be here (and to try not to angst over the fact that they would have most assuredly missed the Hogwarts Express by now. Perhaps it could run later for them? Surely Professor Dumbledore wouldn't allow them to be stranded.)

"Ah, I thought I might run into you now." Speaking of... Professor Dumbledore looks at them all with a wide smile, his blue eyes twinkling beneath his glasses. For a man of his age he still felt so obviously powerful that she can't help but admire him all the more. He affixes Harry with a knowing look that makes her eyebrows raise. "Everything is ready then?"

It all sounded so serious that it makes a knot form in her stomach. Surely there wasn't something out there that required all of their attention. Not like that. Not again. Lord Voldemort was _certainly_ bad enough, terrible enough.

But Harry smiles, nodding at the Headmaster.

"Yes. He's pretty much had everything ready for awhile. You know how he is." He says with a laugh.

A him, then? That she hadn't expected, though she was of course not bothered by it in the least, simply surprised. He had went out with Ginny in very briefly over the summer before sixth year but it hadn't lasted (but they had stayed good friends at least, which was the important thing.)

Professor Dumbledore's smile widens and he laughs softly. "I do indeed. Good luck and godspeed, my boy. I wish you all of the happiness in the world."

"Thank you, Albus."

Now it's not just her but Ron also who looks at Harry in shock. _Albus?_ Harry was somehow on _first name_ terms with the Headmaster?

He leads them out the doors and to the back of the grounds, but stops them before they make their way further out.

"This is important to me." Harry tells them seriously. As serious as she can ever remember him being, even when he was facing Lord Voldemort directly. "This is...I love him. Very much. No questions. Not now, okay? I just-I need your support."

"You-I don't understand." Ron says.

"He's getting married, Ron." She says. Harry nods and Ron's eyes widen. "He's..."

She stops and suddenly everything becomes crystal clear to her and she completely understands the past couple of years so much better now. Harry's eyes alight with understanding as he looks at her and he nods. She nods back.

"No words. Just...be there. If that's," Harry swallows. "If that's okay."

Ron places a hand on his shoulder. "I can't say I completely understand, but Harry? All the both of us want is to see you happy as well. You're our best friend for a reason, you know."

Harry's smile turns watery and she's sure all of their eyes are just as bad.

"Okay then. Come meet my husband properly then."

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"I never truly understood the concept of love until I looked at you. _Really_ looked at you. And it hit me then, that night before the battle against Voldemort that I knew what love was, because you had been showing me, in your own way, for a long time." He feels Severus' hands tighten on his and he smiles.

"You never pushed me. You let me find my own way, let me realize my feelings and what I wanted to do with them. You stood beside me when I thought Sirius might die, after the battle, even though you two never have seen eye to eye. I don't think I ever thanked you properly for that. So all I can do now is tell you that I love you and that I'll do everything in my power, every day for the rest of my life, to make you happy."

And he waits for Severus' response; knows the man has been working on vows for weeks now (though he had denied it continually.) Waits for the large speech, the complicated words. And-

"You are the light of my life." Severus whispers, voice hoarse.

His eyes widen beneath his spectacles before they fill with tears. Big words, many words, long words? He didn't need them. He only needed to know that Severus loved him. That, _that_ , was what meant everything to him.

"You may kiss your-"

Neither of them let the Ministry appointed minister finish before they grab at each other-Severus' pale hands hot, desperate things as they pull him close-kissing each other with an intensity that leaves him breathless and a love that tightens his heart.

As he pulls back, he hears sobbing and turns to see-not Hermione sobbing, but Ron.

"I'm always such shite at weddings." Ron groans.

He smiles, at his friends, at his _husband_ , and, for the first time in years, knows true peace of mind and happiness.

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I hope you enjoyed this!

Let me know what you thought!

-PhoenixJustice


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